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Archimperator (Ship)
Description The rare Archimperator will always serve as the flagship of a powerful ogre War King. These ships resemble greatly over-sized versions of the standard ogre Mammoth. The interiors are largely built along the same lines as a Mammoth, although such a ship will have five decks instead of four. The mid deck is between the cargo deck and the main deck. Crew quarters take up the forward half of the deck with a second commons near the center of the deck. The rear half of the deck is a secondary cargo hold. The ogres will keep treasure, foodstuffs, spare weapons, and other stolen booty in this secondary cargo hold. The only access is granted through a double door, so goods stored within must be small and easily moved by an ogre. Such monstrous warships could only be moved by two or more major helms linked in series. As a result of the great expense of purchasing the series major helm from the arcane, only a powerful cabal of ogre magi with formal training as wizards or priests will be able to comission such a ship. These ogre magi will then select a powerful and charismatic ogre chief to turn into an even more powerful War King, who can attract and lead several hundred ogre warriors. Crew Archimperators will typically carry 4-10 ogre magi serving as helmsmen and advisors to the War King, along with anywhere from 180 - 500 ogre warriors. While such large crews put a serious strain on the air envelopes of Archimperators, the War Kings favour short-range raiding, typically including many 'dirt-side' raids on planetary settlements, allowing the ship's air to be frequently refreshed. Unlike the smaller Mammoths, Archimperators are never used as clanships, and so they do not usually carry females, children, or even slaves. Any slaves captured are typically transferred to lesser ships under the command of the War King. Ship Uses Command Battleship: An Archimperator will invariably serve both as a super-heavy battleship, and as a command ship for a fleet of smaller vessels. These vessels will include as many Mammoths as possible, but will also include any captured ships which are not too badly damaged to be salvaged. Few of these massive ships were ever built, and the elves believed them all to be destroyed in the First Unhuman War and the hunt that followed. The powerful, but clumsy, Archimperators were able to dish out and absorb huge amounts of punishment, but the ships were badly out-maneuvered by the elven Armadas, and one-by-one the massive ships fell to the arrows and spells of the elves. In the years since the First Unhuman War, there have been a few scattered reports of encounters with Archimperators leading small fleets of ships. It is unknown if these Archimperators are ships that escaped the elves, or if they are newly-constructed vessels, however it seems that they are operating in the same fashion as the ancient ships of the War Kings, albeit in a slightly more cautious manner. While these Archimperators represent a significant threat, it is interesting to note that when the scro ignited the flames of the Second Unhuman War, no Archimperators were seen working alongside them. There is some debate as to whether this means that the masters of the Archimperators are unwilling to cooperate with the scro, or whether it simply means that the groups have yet to make contact. Other Configurations Kingship: While all Archimperators could be called kingships, since they are invariably commanded by ogre War Kings, the only significant variation of the Archimperator has become known as an ogre Kingship. This is because the first ship of this configuration, the Flametusk, was the flagship of the most legendary War King of all time, the infamous Gragknar Ironskull (so known because of a battle in which the top of his skull was chopped off by a halberd - Gragknar quickly shoved an iron helm onto his head to keep his brain in place, and quaffed a potion of regeneration resulting in his flesh growing to cover the edges of the helmet, which would forever after be a part of him). A Kingship replaces 5 heavy weapons with an armoured bombard dome, exactly like the dome used by the Mastodon variant of the standard Mammoth. It is unknown if the Mastodon was inspired by the Kingship, or vice versa. Only three different Kingships are known to have been built over the years, but it is possible that there have been more.